Gap between Exchange and Completion

AnotherJoe

You don't set an exchange date, but as edddy has said you can tell your solicitor you want at least x days before completion and if that period is passed , then the completion date will have to move..

Richard_Webster

Hate to say this but the number of times I heard "everybody wants to complete on [some specified date]" and when we actually got to the point of trying to exchange we found that a few links up in the chain there was a totally different story or they weren't at all ready......

So very important you get the solicitors to check these completion dates. Don't rely on estate agents or what other individuals in the chain tell you. One agent can talk to another and get three week old half information, e.g. someone in the chain is happy with a date provided they have 3 weeks between exchange and completion. There's usually some reason for that like their uncle in High Wycombe can let them use his van but needs that much notice. The agents don't pass on the proviso and it is only on trying to exchange that some tale like this comes out.

Also because it is three weks old things have chnaged and the empty property that the people at the top of th chain were buying no longer features - they've decided to buy something else where there is achain above it!

Years ago the Land Registry tried to suggest a chain matrix system wherby information flow up and down a chain could be much improved but they got no financial resources for it and the government thought Home Information Packs were the great panacea that would speed everything up!

So our present system has the major wekeness that information flow about readyness and potential completion dates in a chain is managed by sellers and buyers who don't move that often and therefore don't know about potential problems or by estate agents who often do not have enough experience to ask the extra questions to make sure that what they are being told makes sense. The solicitors who could do this job are too busy dealing with the legal stuff and can rarely devote a lot of time to it or are "online" call centre convreyancing factories with staff who haven't a clue.

kingstreet

markymark1983 wrote: »

if it just happens how do I know when to organise buildings insurance from??

When ready and when a completion date has been agreed your solicitor will ask you for permission to exchange contracts with completion on DD/MM/YYYY.